1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a print control device and a recording medium storing a printer driver. Specifically, the invention relates to the print control device configured to modify print job data with use of functional filters, and the recording medium containing a printer driver to be installed in the print control device and to cause the print control device to function.
2. Prior Art
Generally, in the print control device for controlling a printer, a printer driver, which is a program, having functions of modifying the print job data is installed. As the functions of modifying the print job data, there are known a sorting function for changing the order of images to be printed, a multi-page function for printing a plurality of pages of images on a sheet of a recording paper, a watermark function for printing an image with additional images such as see-through letters and the like as the watermark.
Typically, the printer driver which is configured to modify document data output in an XML (Extensible Markup Language) format from an application is provided with program modules which execute various modifying processes as functional filters. The functional filters can be added to and removed from the printer driver. The printer driver retrieves the functional filters when it executes a print job, and modifies the document data using the functional filters, and output the modified print job as print data, which is transmitted to the printer or the like.
Regarding the printer driver making use of the functional filters, a print system allowing a user to change the order of execution of the functional filters is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2006-48537 (hereinafter, referred to as '537 publication). In such a print system, depending on the combination of various functions, and depending of the order of the various functions, different images may be output.
For example, an output image based on the print data, which is modified in accordance with a multi-page function (e.g., 2-in-1 function) and the watermark function in this order, and another output image based on the print data, which is modified in accordance with the watermark function and the multi-page function in this order, are different. According to the print system disclosed in '537 publication, therefore, he user is allowed to designate the order of the functional filters so that the user can obtain desired images.